Patrick Jones Comes to New Jersey Libraries

I put together some cool clips from the YA guru's visit to NJ... now remember I am just beginning so excuse those little things that don't make sense! :-)

If you are reading in bloglines, you'll have to click to my blog to see it. I've posted links to other blogs in the post below. They really detail what Patrick said and provide lots of links to his pages and blogs.

I think what I loved most about Patrick from a marketing point of view is that he knows the key audience he wants to attract are non-readers. I wonder if other librarians think about who they are really looking to attract. Are you wondering yourself?

The best way to see that is to look at the people who come to your activities over and over... I have a friend who loves abandoned puppies and kids that don't fit in. Is it any surprise that her YA activities are packed with all the kids that didn't quite fit in with other teens? And I mean PACKED- they have certainly found a place where they DO fit. Another has struggled to be the best and move ahead- her activities tend to attract those who are achievers. The easy reach, is the one where we allow ourselves to extend to others and make a connection. And what a high it is when the programs are filled, people are rushing to borrow from the collections and what you do is valued.

That's the place where we begin ... marketing teaches us how to reach those who are not like us. We learn to ask others what they think because we don't know what they are thinking because they are not thinking like us. Of course even if we are working with those who are like us we can guess in the beginning but after awhile we will even lose them if we don't give them the ability to offer input. I think many of the YA librarians I've met have learned this rather quickly just because of the age differences. So some of the question marketing is always asking is, What do you want? What do you need? What do you like?